Daily Archives: April 27, 2013

Jane Eyre (1934)

Posted on April 27, 2013 | 4 comments

Jane EyreJane Eyre Poster
Directed by Christy Cabanne
1934/USA
Monogram Pictures
First viewing

 

“I am not an angel,’ I asserted; ‘and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me – for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

The first sound adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel.  After a lonely and difficult childhood, the independent-minded Jane Eyre (Virginia Bruce) becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall.  There she falls in love with the master of the house Mr. Rochester (Colin Clive)  but he has a shocking secret that stands in the way of their happiness.

Jane Eyre 1

I have a few more films to watch but I do believe I may have hit the bottom of the barrel for 1934.  This film might not be worse than Maniac but it is certainly less fun.  Where to start?  With the sets that quiver when brushed?  No, I think the worst part is the amateurish brutalization of the novel.  Here we have a glamorous Jane Eyre with golden ringlets who sings to Rochester at their first meeting for what seems like five minutes of this 62-minute movie.  The Adele character is changed to being Rochester’s niece and has quite a prominent part in the story so that she can do hilarious stunts like falling head first into an urn.  Crazy wife Bertha shows up at the wedding looking quite OK and asking to see her husband.  There are many times when it seems like the actors have been asked to improvise their lines.  Since it is evident that no one, including the director, has read the novel, this was a bad idea.

I may be revising how I go forward with my year-by-year project.  Seeing so many mediocre movies in a row is making me jaded and cranky.  I think I may forego seeing anything with a user rating less than 6.0/10 on IMDb.  This one was rated 4.7/10.

Clip – Wedding scene (appearance of Bertha Mason)

 

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Posted in Movie Reviews

We Live Again (1934)

Posted on April 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

We Live Again (AKA “Resurrection”)We Live Again Poster
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
1934/USA
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
First viewing

Every man and every living creature has a sacred right to the gladness of springtime.” ― Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection

 The story is based on the novel Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy.  A noble household is quite attached to its servant girl Katusha (Anna Sten); the son, Prince Dmitri (Fredric March), and the girl grew up together.  One summer, the callow, idealistic Dmitri comes home from military training full of ideas about equality of the classes and falls chastely in love with Katusha.  But when he returns to the army Dmitri is quickly swept up in its decadent lifestyle and forgets about his ideals.  When he comes home again, he seduces and abandons Katusha who ends up pregnant, disgraced, and discharged from her position.  Years later, Dmitri sees Katusha again when she is on trial for murder, having previously descended into a life of prostitution.  He realizes the great wrong he has done and attempts to make amends.  With Joan Baxter as Dmitri’s fiance; C. Aubrey Smith as her father (did the man have time to sleep in 1934??), and Sam Jaffe as a revolutionary.

We Live Again 1

First, let me say that this is a really gorgeous film lensed by Gregg Toland and with wonderful authentic 19th Century Russian sets.  There is a glorious scene of Russian Orthodox Easter in a church.  I have never seen Anna Sten before and she is very beautiful and appealing in the love scenes.  She overdoes it a bit after her fall but not too badly.    Frederic March is good as always.

Something happened to this film between the first act and the second act.  The early love scenes took their time and were a pleasure to watch.  The later scenes were good too but seemed rushed or something – like this was clumsily edited for time.

 

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Posted in 1934

The Scarlet Letter (1934)

Posted on April 27, 2013 | 8 comments

The Scarlet LetterScarlet Letter Poster
Directed by Robert G. Vignola
1934/USA
Larry Darmour Productions
First Viewing

 

 

“It [the scarlet letter] had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

This poverty-row adaptation of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel stars Colleen Moore as Hester Prynne, Hardie Albright as Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, Henry B. Walthall as Roger Chillingworth, and Alan Hale as comic relief.  In 17th century Massachusetts, a woman whose husband was thought to be lost at sea is forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her breast as punishment for adultery that resulted in the birth of a child.  She refuses to reveal the father of the girl but her husband returns incognito, determined to hound both parties to the affair for the rest of his days.

Scarlet Letter 1

It is hard to find anything good to say about this movie.  The first strike against it is that the makers felt compelled to lighten the dark story of the novel with copious amounts of comic relief, mostly supplied by Alan Hale and William Kent as sort of a Mutt and Jeff team.  Their bits are really jarring and not all that funny.  All the beards look obviously fake.  Then you get the principals posturing as if they were making a silent movie.  Colleen Moore is the worst and also seems years too old for her part, though she would have only been 35 in 1934.  This was the last film Moore ever made.

Colleen_bobbed

 

Colleen Moore was a silent film star.  She is most famous for “flapper” roles such as in  classic Flaming Youth (1923), in which she played Patricia Fentriss. By 1927 she was the top box-office draw in the US.  She invested her motion picture earnings wisely and remained wealthy until her death in 1988 at age 88.

Excerpt – oh, those wacky Puritans!

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Posted in 1934

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